George Nelson

George NelsonGeorge Nelson (1908-1986) was, together with Charles & Ray Eames, one of the founding fathers of American modernism. We like to think of George Nelson as "The Creator of Beautiful and Practical Things".

George Nelson was part of a generation of architects that found too few projects and turned successfully toward product, graphic and interior design. In 1945 De Pree asked him to become Herman Miller's design director, an appointment that became the start of a long series of successful collaborations with Ray and Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia, Richard Schultz, Donald Knorr and Isamu Noguchi.

George Nelson's catalogue design and exhibition designs for Herman Miller close a long list of involvements designed to make design to the most important driving force in the company. From his start in the mid-forties to the mid-eighties his office worked for and with the best of his times. At one point Ettore Sottsass worked at his office. He was without any doubt the most articulate and one of the most eloquent voices on design and architecture in the U.S.A. of the 20th century. He was a teacher and he did write extensively, organized conferences like the legendary Aspen gatherings and published several books. Among the best known designs are his marshmallow sofa, the coconut chair, the Catenary group, his clocks and many other products that became milestones in the history of a profession that he helped to shape.

Books Periodicals Websites

George Nelson on design/ George Nelson

How to see : visual adventures in a world God never made / George Nelson

Problems of design / George Nelson

Tomorrow's house, how to plan your post-war home now / George Nelson

George Nelson / Michael Webb

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Abitare, May 2004; v.22

Interior Design, Aug 1994; v.65 n.8

GSD News/Harvard Graduate School of Design News, 1993; Wi-Sp

Interiors, April 1986; v.145

Design Quarterly, 1975; n98-99

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The Nagouchi Museum

Design Within Reach

Design Additct

ARCHI TONIC, a visual catalog of his works

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